Guitar Radius setup question.

D

delirium trigge

New member
I have never owned a set of radius gauges. I just try to get it to feel right. It never seems to be a problem on anything except the fenders. I do not completely understand it.

If I want low action, won't putting the radius gauge under the strings decide the action for me? Also, is there anyway to do it without a radius gauge?

Can I use a different radius gauge than specified to get a lower action? Or do you just move the radius gauge to different spots of the guitar for different action? I am confused on this matter.

OR are the radius gauges already really low and if you want higher action you pull the radius gauge up instead of laying it all the way down on the guitar?

I would like a recommendation on what to order as well. I need a set that will have something for a Fender Bass, a Fender Strat, Gibson Les Paul, and ESP EC-1000.
 
I radius gauge just tells you what the radius of your fretboard is. You would use it with the strings removed or loosened enough to put a gauge on it.

As far as lower action.
The flatter your fretboard radius is the lower you can set the action and still not fret out when you do deep bends
(fret out = note dies because string touches fret and quits vibrating.)
Fretboards with a radius of 8 or less will fret out with low action. On the other hand, your fingers have a natural curve to them and get fatigued on a very flat fretboard (flatter than 11). So, it's a tradeoff. Comfort vs lower action
I like a 9.5 or 10 fretboard radius. It's comfortable bit allows deep bending on the blues in love to play.
 
Mmmmm...radius is set when the neck is manufactured.
You're not going to change the neck radius.

Do you mean feeller guages....for checking the string height off the frets in order to set the truss rod...?
You don't need different ones for different guitars...one set will work for all.
Basically, I would have a 0.3, 0.4 and 0.5 mm...that will give you low/med/high settings for the truss rod.
Then AFA the action....that you set to personal taste....it could be a wide range of settings depending on what you like and on the guitar.
 
delirium trigge said:
I have never owned a set of radius gauges. I just try to get it to feel right. It never seems to be a problem on anything except the fenders. I do not completely understand it.
Click to expand...

I have a full set but never use them for setups. I only use them for checking the radius of a board.

Set it up by feel.

For me personally, on Fender stuff I usually set the bass strings as low as I can for ease of playing and end up with the E and b strings set a bit higher. It is kind of a lopsided radius.

I bend as far as I can bend, and adjust the height so it does not crap out on the bends.

Just keep playing around by feel till you get the action where you want it without buzz and without crapping out on bends. Where it ends up varies from player to player.
 
jimistone said:
Fretboard with a radius of 8 or less will fret out with low action. On the other hand, your fingers have a natural curve to them and get fatigued on a very flat fretboard. So, it's a tradeoff. Comfort vs lower action
Click to expand...

You know...I never found that to be that case, at least not for my hand.

I find I need at least a 12 radius for it to feel more comnfortable than the more curved ones. Most of my guitars are are 15-16, and I can play bar chords on my wide radius necks all day, but when I pick up my Tele with the 7.25....my hand hurts after a short while...
...but then, I've been playing on wide radius necks for years, so I guess my hand just got use to that and it fits better. :)
 
RFR said:
I have a full set but never use them for setups. I only use them for checking the radius of a board.

Set it up by feel.

For me personally, on Fender stuff I usually set the bass strings as low as I can for ease of playing and end up with the E and b strings set a bit higher. It is kind of a lopsided radius.

I bend as far as I can bend, and adjust the height so it does not crap out on the bends.

Just keep playing around by feel till you get the action where you want it without buzz and without crapping out on bends. Where it ends up varies from player to player.
Click to expand...
Thats what I do as well.
I set the action so low that the strings fret out and then start easing up until I can play in the high B position and do big bends and not fret out.
 
RFR said:
For me personally, on Fender stuff I usually set the bass strings as low as I can for ease of playing and end up with the E and b strings set a bit higher.
Click to expand...

Yeah...I wasn't thinking about the vintage style saddles on the Fender guitars....you actually CAN set them to follow the radius and/or to taste, unlike the typical Tune-o-matic bridges on Gibsons and such.
On my one Tele...I just set them by eye and feel.
 
miroslav said:
Mmmmm...radius is set when the neck is manufactured.
You're not going to change the neck radius.

Do you mean feeller guages....for checking the string height off the frets in order to set the truss rod...?
You don't need different ones for different guitars...one set will work for all.
Basically, I would have a 0.3, 0.4 and 0.5 mm...that will give you low/med/high settings for the truss rod.
Then AFA the action....that you set to personal taste....it could be a wide range of settings depending on what you like and on the guitar.
Click to expand...

No, I can adjust the Truss Rod the way I like it. I can then get the string action the way I like it. But, say for a Fender strat, the string action is adjusted one string at a time, meaning, the radius of the strings will be off. The radius gauges go under the strings and you adjust each string until it fits the radius.

However, what I'm wonder is, won't that dictate my action? I don't want it to dictate my action? But I want it to be the right radius. For example, the middle string to not be lower or higher than the top string. For it to have that round curve that the radius gauge has. Which is what they are meant to be for the fretboard.

It's not a problem with the other guitars I have, I just lower the action, set the truss rod fairly straight and that's it. But with my fender bass and Fender guitar, I know that I don't have the string action correct.

On a Gibson, it just adjust by both sides. Therefore all the strings go down evenly. On the Fender, it goes one at a time, and they aren't supposed to be even, they are supposed to be in a curve, like the radius gauge. I understand how to use one. But if I adjust it to the radius gauge, what if I want it to be higher or lower?
 
miroslav said:
Yeah...I wasn't thinking about the vintage style saddles on the Fender guitars....you actually CAN set them to follow the radius and/or to taste, unlike the typical Tune-o-matic bridges on Gibsons and such.
On my one Tele...I just set them by eye and feel.
Click to expand...


Yeah, that's what I meant.

I have my action on my other guitars very low, they have fret work, and I use a straight neck. Some of them have slight relief but not much. Only the ones that buzz too much do I give slight relief to.
 
miroslav said:
You know...I never found that to be that case, at least not for my hand.

I find I need at least a 12 radius for it to feel more comnfortable than the more curved ones. Most of my guitars are are 15-16, and I can play bar chords on my wide radius necks all day, but when I pick up my Tele with the 7.25....my hand hurts after a short while...
...but then, I've been playing on wide radius necks for years, so I guess my hand just got use to that and it fits better. :)
Click to expand...

It's all what your get used to. There is no right or wrong, just what is right for you.:D

I did some stuff for Gary Moore. I couldn't play it. 13s and high action on a 9.5 radius. Unplayable to me. I'd tweek and hand it to him, and he wanted it higher. finally I had it high enough for him.:)

I asked him how he came to get used to strings that heavy and action that high. He told me he grew up poor and could only get shitty acoustic guitars and just learned to play blues on them. That's what he was used to.

:D
 
I still say the radius guages aren't really used for setting string action....and as mentioned above, it's mostly the Fender guitars that let you set the individual string height, but that you would do by feel, not by radius guage as RFR said.

With Gibson and such...you don't change the radius you just raise or lower or tilt the whole thing.

Anyway...the way I do a setup is to first set the truss rod/neck...and for that I use feeler guages.
Then I set my action by rasing/lowering the whole bridge (Fenders same thing, just individually by eye and feel)
Then I set my pickup height.

YMMV.... :)
 
RFR said:
It's all what your get used to. There is no right or wrong, just what is right for you.:D

I did some stuff for Gary Moore. I couldn't play it. 13s and high action on a 9.5 radius. Unplayable to me. I'd tweek and hand it to him, and he wanted it higher. finally I had it high enough for him.:)

I asked him how he came to get used to strings that heavy and action that high. He told me he grew up poor and could only get shitty acoustic guitars and just learned to play blues on them. That's what he was used to.

:D
Click to expand...

Yeah, I use 10-52 on electric in Drop C# or Eb on the strat. On the acoustic I use 12-53 in Eb. I like the tone of a medium to heavy string. I can't stand light strings. I'm not a huge fan of standard tuning either, which is why I'm always a half step down. Sounds more full.
 
miroslav said:
You know...I never found that to be that case, at least not for my hand.

I find I need at least a 12 radius for it to feel more comnfortable than the more curved ones. Most of my guitars are are 15-16, and I can play bar chords on my wide radius necks all day, but when I pick up my Tele with the 7.25....my hand hurts after a short while...
...but then, I've been playing on wide radius necks for years, so I guess my hand just got use to that and it fits better. :)
Click to expand...

I'm the oppisite. I like a tighter radius. 9.5 or 10 is just right for me. Man, a 14 or 15 is torture and has a Chinese guitar feel to me.
Different strokes for different folks miro. That's what makes the world go round.
:)
 
delirium trigge said:
No, I can adjust the Truss Rod the way I like it. I can then get the string action the way I like it. But, say for a Fender strat, the string action is adjusted one string at a time, meaning, the radius of the strings will be off. The radius gauges go under the strings and you adjust each string until it fits the radius.

However, what I'm wonder is, won't that dictate my action? I don't want it to dictate my action? But I want it to be the right radius. For example, the middle string to not be lower or higher than the top string. For it to have that round curve that the radius gauge has. Which is what they are meant to be for the fretboard.

It's not a problem with the other guitars I have, I just lower the action, set the truss rod fairly straight and that's it. But with my fender bass and Fender guitar, I know that I don't have the string action correct.

On a Gibson, it just adjust by both sides. Therefore all the strings go down evenly. On the Fender, it goes one at a time, and they aren't supposed to be even, they are supposed to be in a curve, like the radius gauge. I understand how to use one. But if I adjust it to the radius gauge, what if I want it to be higher or lower?
Click to expand...

Quite clearly you don't. That is not what they are for and not how it is commonly and best done. That has been pointed out to you.

Seriously, notched rulers and radius gauges for setting action? You need to take a step back and do a little reading.
 
RFR said:
It's all what your get used to. There is no right or wrong, just what is right for you.:D

I did some stuff for Gary Moore. I couldn't play it. 13s and high action on a 9.5 radius. Unplayable to me. I'd tweek and hand it to him, and he wanted it higher. finally I had it high enough for him.:)

I asked him how he came to get used to strings that heavy and action that high. He told me he grew up poor and could only get shitty acoustic guitars and just learned to play blues on them. That's what he was used to.

:D
Click to expand...
Gary moore...great player!
 
d0gmA said:
I like using the guage over the bridge while setting up to judge how close my briged is matching the radius of my neck.
Click to expand...

What do you do you do with one-piece bridges if they don't "match" the neck radius perfectly....which covers most non-Fender guitars...?
 
d0gmA said:
Here is a free Radius Guage Set just print glue to cardboard and cut out http://img.docstoccdn.com/thumb/orig/29890633.png

I like using the guage over the bridge while setting up to judge how close my briged is matching the radius of my neck. Its simply a tool to make the job go faster.
Click to expand...

Thats primarily what they are for.. You adjust to taste after that depending on string gauge and preference. The other use is really just to check f/b radius. They are pretty useless so so printed out set is just as good as the fancy ones. I don't use them and don't have a use for them.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top